1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved Bluetooth® device search and connect process. More particularly, the inventive process for Bluetooth® pairing may be performed with a third party terminal that has programming capability. The third party terminal will make a list of neighboring Bluetooth® devices and will provide the list to a pairing (slave) device. Neighboring Bluetooth® device lists may be composed by using either a “third party terminal” Bluetooth® capability, or alternatively, through an “inquiring device” (e.g., pairing) Bluetooth® capability, whereby an inquiring device uses a list of neighboring Bluetooth® devices provided by a third party to connect to other Bluetooth® devices. This third party paging invention can be applied to other wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and WiMax, and any reference herein to the term “Bluetooth®” is also meant to include applications to all other manner of wireless, as well as wired technologies.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Wireless terminals such as computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), barcode scanners, printers, etc are becoming increasingly useful among consumers and within industry. These devices often use Bluetooth® as a wireless technology, Bluetooth® is a technology promoted by the Bluetooth® SIG of Kirkland, Wash., for providing short range wireless communications that makes it possible to wirelessly connect Bluetooth® enabled devices within a relatively short range at low cost. In Bluetooth® communication, radio frequencies are used to exchange voice and data signals between Bluetooth® devices within a relatively short range without the need for physical cables. For example, when a mobile communication terminal and a laptop computer are each equipped with a Bluetooth® module, they can be wirelessly connected each other, i.e. without using cables. Almost all types of digital devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), desktop computers, facsimiles (FAXs), keyboards, and joysticks can utilize Bluetooth® communication if they have a Bluetooth® module.
A device having a Bluetooth® module searches neighboring Bluetooth® devices and performs a pairing process with the searched Bluetooth® device so that it can wirelessly communicate with the searched Bluetooth® device(s). The pairing process is an authentication process in which an inter-device common link key defined in the Bluetooth® interface standard is created to authenticate an inter-device common link. Bluetooth® functionality is widely implemented in various electronics, including cell phones, barcode readers, keyboards and printers. Bluetooth® devices require paging and inquiring process to establish connection between two Bluetooth® devices. To this end, peripheral Bluetooth® devices such as barcode scanners, keyboards, joysticks and printers are normally developed as a Bluetooth® slave device, without the capacity to initiate direct Bluetooth® connection features to the other Bluetooth® devices (whether master devices such as a PC, a PDA, or slave devices such as the illustrative barcode scanners, keyboards, joysticks and printers.) However, users of these peripheral (slave) Bluetooth® devices may nevertheless need to initiate a connection to other Bluetooth® devices directly sometimes, but cannot do so in the current art of Bluetooth® enabled electronic devices.
Furthermore, certain Bluetooth® enabled electronic devices are structured so as to magnify the above problem further. For example, one popular electronic device in use today is the Apple iPhone®, which is available from Apple, Inc., of Cupertino, Calif. As evidence of the aforementioned additional difficulties encountered in the known art, the Apple iPhone® does not even provide page (search) and inquiry (connect) function for these peripheral devices. This is because the Apple iPhone® and some other proprietary devices differ in an additional aspect. Specifically, typical (e.g., non-iPhone®) connecting Bluetooth® devices (master devices such as PCs and PDAs) provide rudimentary Bluetooth® manager software. This software allows for the master device to search neighboring Bluetooth® devices (Bluetooth® calls this process as “pairing”), and permits a user to select a device to connect (Bluetooth® calls this process as “inquiring”), such that a connected device may be requested to enter a PIN to connecting device and thereafter, the two devices are connected if the PIN matches. Unfortunately, however, iPhone® has blocked the ability to list peripheral/neighboring Bluetooth® devices (except for a nominal Bluetooth® headset) during its search process, and as such, does not support any other manner of Bluetooth® enabled devices, thus slave and other devices cannot perform a connection.
Thus, full, reciprocal connectivity between all manner of peripheral Bluetooth® devices (whether barcode scanners, printers, keyboards and joysticks) and all types of master Bluetooth® devices remains elusive because one simply cannot initiate either the pairing and/or inquiring process given the lack of either programming features, or due to the lack of displays for controlling the pairing and the inquiry (inquiring) process. Further to this point, and as alluded to above, peripheral Bluetooth® devices typically lack either programming capability or display functions such that a paged (searched) device list cannot be controlled in proper manner, despite the fact that this is a very common Bluetooth® manager function that exists (for non-iPhone® type connections) on most non-peripheral (master) Bluetooth® terminals. Because of this, if a user needs to select a Bluetooth® device to inquire from paged (searched) list, it is not a trivial task (from the peripheral Bluetooth® device perspective) to provide the searched list and to allow for the user to select a device from a list. More specifically, this is also because there is a lack of either programming capability, or because of a lack of input and output capability such as buttons, display, visible light, display, speakers, or other external communication ports.
Accordingly, prior art systems, as described below (each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in their respective entireties) merely try to achieve efficient way connecting two Bluetooth® devices and do not address the deficiencies described above. For example, US patent publication number 2008/0076389, titled “An Automatic Pairing Method for a Bluetooth®-Enabled Mobile Terminal” purportedly proposes an automatic paring and connection method using additional authentication signals that are defined between devices, whereby the two devices reportedly check whether they are “automatic pairing and connection enabled” devices (such as Samsung phone and Samsung headset) and perform automatic pairing and connection process without standard user involved paging and inquiring procedure. Similarly, US patent publication number 2007/0197164, titled “Method and Device for Automatic Bluetooth® pairing” purportedly defines a device connection method wherein a slave device tries to connect master device if there is a connected history stored therein. Also, US patent publication number 2005/0220221, titled “Identifying a local device by name” supposedly proposes maintaining a Bluetooth® device name locally in order to speed up inquiring process so as to focus on searching and connection method of slave devices. To this end, users of Bluetooth® enabled electronic devices of all kinds (not just the illustrative iPhone®), are in need of a way to connect directly to peripheral/neighboring Bluetooth® devices, with or without an additional authentication process.